Page 4 of Light From The Dark
Fully sated, I leaned against the wall and allowed Brent to wash my body. He took his time, careful to get every inch of me clean. Once he was satisfied he’d done a thorough job, he reached over to shut off the water and leaned into me, giving me a soft peck on the lips.
“All done.”
After drying off and brushing our teeth, I let him lead me into the bedroom, where he pulled the covers back from their neatly tucked corners.
We slid in from opposite sides and met in the middle of the king-sized bed. I placed my hand on his hard abs as he lay on his back with his hands folded behind his head.
“Don’t worry, Brent. You’ll get justice for her.”
His grunt of agreement was the last thing I knew as I drifted off to sleep.
Two
CASEY
I steppedoff the bus into a small town somewhere in Texas; having lost track of where I was. I had ridden on so many buses, crisscrossing so many states, that I was tired of traveling. I looked around the busy terminal, trying to find a sign with a city name, but I gave up after being jostled too many times.
I grabbed my rolling suitcase and hefted my backpack over my shoulders. I had promised not to tell my mom where I was going. Though I missed her like crazy, I knew I couldn’t call her. Calls were able to be traced too easily.
I stepped out into the sunshine and was instantly hit by a wall of heat and humidity. In our coastal town in northern California, it was almost always cool or pleasantly warm. It certainly had never gotten as hot as it felt right now. I already had sweat forming at my temples and was tempted to take my hoodie off.
After leaving the hospital and talking to one detective or FBI agent after another, I had retreated into myself. Finally, my mom convinced me to see a therapist to talk about my ordeal. The woman was nice enough, but I’d had trouble reliving my time in that basement. I’d given the police all the information I could, but it didn’t matter. The man had disappeared without a trace.
Somehow, the Castle Killer had escaped without anyone knowing his identity. His neighbors didn’t know him. The name he had given to his landlord was an alias and had been stolen from another man that had died in a car accident. The police didn’t even know what he looked like because all I could give them was a description of his nose. And that might not even be correct because I had only seen him once and refused to look at him again.
With the serial killer on the loose and me as his only living victim, my parents and I had decided that it was in my best interest to get away. So they pulled every penny from their savings account, gave it to me in cash, and then put me on a bus with strict instructions to keep going until I felt safe. After spending almost two weeks on buses, I finally realized I would never feel safe.
I saw a diner a block down the road and began to walk in that direction. Perhaps something to eat that didn’t come from a vending machine would help me decide if I wanted to keep going to another town or if I was ready to call it good. At the moment, I was famished and needed to sleep in an actual bed and not on a bus.
The bell jingled above my head as I walked in, keeping my eyes on the floor. Then, I heard a cheery voice call out to me and tell me to sit anywhere I liked. I pulled my suitcase behind me as I walked across the black and white tiled floor to sit with my back to the wall, facing the front, needing to see who was coming in. Even though I didn’t know what he looked like, just the thought of him catching me off-guard was enough to have me want to vomit.
I slid into a soft booth covered in bright red vinyl and sighed, relaxing my shoulders. I pulled my suitcase against the wall next to me to keep it out of the way but within reach if I needed to leave quickly.
“Hey, there, darlin’. I haven’t seen you around here before.” The lady asked with a distinct Texan drawl as she handed me a menu and placed a glass of water in front of me, already sweating from the amount of ice in it.
“Hi,” I said softly. “I, umm, I just got off the bus.”
“Oh, yeah?” She perked up. “You here visiting family?”
I just shook my head as I pulled the menu in front of me and opened it to see pictures of hamburgers on one side and breakfast foods on the other. It all looked so good.
“Oh. Just passing through, then?”
I looked up at her and saw kindness in her brown eyes as she looked me over. I could see pity there, too, and knew she thought I was running from something. Well, she’d be right. But I was willing to bet it wasn’t what she was thinking.
“I just needed to get away. I don’t know if I’m staying or going at the moment. But I would love a cheeseburger and fries, please.”
The bell on the door jingled, and we both looked up to see a man in dusty blue jeans and a dirty white t-shirt with the name Mason Construction on the front.
“Hey there, Brent!” she called out to the man with a huge smile. “Have a seat, hun. I’ll be right with you.”
He waved at her on his way to a booth, but stopped in his tracks when our eyes met. I sucked in a breath at the hypnotizing beauty of his eyes. He was tall, probably six-three or four, with dark blond hair and full lips. His body looked hard and muscular, likely from all the hard physical labor he did daily. His tee stretched tight across his broad chest, showing off his defined arm muscles that were covered in black ink. I couldn’t tell what the art was, but I could see bits of it peeking out from the collar of his shirt, stretching up to his neck.
As he took me in, I realized that I probably looked like a mess. I hadn’t had a shower beyond a quick scrub down in bus terminal bathroom sinks in almost two weeks. My clothes were wrinkly and smelly, I was sure. I probably had circles under my eyes from lack of proper sleep.
But the way he stared at me had tingles racing down my spine. I looked away quickly and picked up my glass of water with both hands. I gripped it tightly, hoping that no one would notice my trembling fingers.
“Alright, darlin’, let me get your burger put in. Do you want a drink to go with it? My name is Grace, by the way.”